Alden leaned forward and put on his soft look. The one that said he understood things weren’t easy and he was there. It was mostly bullshit, Jos knew. He might be a decent guy, but the way he switched faces would leave anyone with whiplash.
“We have it from Joe himself that his daughter once idolized you. You were her first crush, actually. You were the reason she went into journalism.”
“In that case, you’d think he’d want me fired since he’s not happy with what his daughter is doing.” She realized, too late, that she’d said that out loud. There was no taking it back, so she put on a tough game face of her own.
“No, he doesn’t want you fired. Eden would have switched her major from business to pursue journalism anyway. He made that quite clear. He wants his daughter to work with you, and when you’re Joe Rutherford, you get what you want.” Alden was a smart man. He was a very, smart man.
“So, you basically want me to go find this girl and charm her into taking the job because she obviously doesn’t want to. You want me to do this because she’s a lesbian and I’m a lesbian…” She hoped she wasn’t reading the whole crush statement wrong. That would be embarrassing, but then, this whole situation was turning into one massive pit of humiliation.
That contract in front of her was like blood money. It was a way to save her own neck, though she was setting it on the chopping block anyway. It was a delayed execution.
“We thought you might have something in common,” Alden said, looking uncomfortable. There was actually a collective, uncomfortable sigh from all of them.
“We took a chance on you,” Jim had the nerve to say.
“I more than earned my spot,” Jos argued evenly.
“Fact is, we made your career,” Sheldon stated, backing up Jim. “We made you famous. We made you who you are. Fact is, Jos, you’ve been a bit of a mess the past six months. Your divorce was highly public, and you clearly are at a stage in your life when you want other things. A family…”
/> Jos couldn’t believe it. She felt her jaw unhinge before she could stop it. She snapped it shut and ground her teeth together hard enough to wear down some of the ridges on her molars. She couldn’t believe the audacity. This man clearly cared about no one and nothing but himself and his money and his ratings. She was nothing but a tool in that scheme, a thing, less of a person or not a person at all. Even Alden made a noise low in his throat.
There was no way that Jos was letting them get away with this. She wished she’d had the foresight to record the conversation. In this day and age when the public was increasingly hostile toward entitled, rich old men who thought the world should kiss their feet, the conversation would have been quite a juicy tidbit to let leak.
Obviously, she would have been sued into oblivion and that would have been the end of her, and she did not want to go down that way, but the pleasure at the thought of how Jim and Sheldon would squirm was quite delicious.
It was the only thing keeping Jos calm enough to not get out of her chair and find something to throw across the room. Sometimes throwing things in a fit of anger and terrible despair was the only thing that would vent that grief so that it didn’t turn into a thick, choking mass inside her.
“Is this really what you want?” David cut in, trying to be tactful and break up the horrible silence. “This job, I mean.”
All the fight rushed out of Jos, and she felt weak and watery. She missed the old version of herself. The one that didn’t take crap from anyone. The one that had a backbone of steel. The one that wouldn’t have hesitated to tell these asswipes to go straight to hell.
If she lost her job, she’d lose just about everything that she was.
“We’re also bringing a few new people on board for the morning and lunch spots,” Sheldon said stiffly. “It’s not just your show that’s getting a new look.”
That was way too little, way too fucking late, but Jos didn’t have anything left in the tank. Not after they’d brought up her recent heartache.
“What if she doesn’t want the position?” she choked out, sounding nothing like her normal self.
“Then make her want it,” Jim demanded in a bored tone. To him, it was already a done deal. Jos wouldn’t fail because Jos couldn’t handle failure.
“I’ve given you everything,” Jos whispered before she could silence herself. “Everything. My career is my life. I’ve given up my privacy, my secrets, my marriage, my child, my life.”
“Well, that’s the hard truth about being famous,” Alden said sympathetically. “It costs so much more than most people realize. Most people admire it and hate it at the same time. You’ve been dragged through the mud and put on a pedestal. I understand that. You’ve been a sweetheart of this country and an icon, but the one thing you’ve never been is yourself. It’s important to create a persona and stick to that image and sell it, and not just in your work life. We all know you’ve paid the price lately in the tabloids, but you’re right. You of all people know what it takes. That’s why we can’t think of anyone better to convince Eden that she needs to take this job.” Leave it to Alden to give her a series of deeply personal, deeply intuitive, backhanded compliments.
The atmosphere in the room was so cold that ice crystals could have formed on every surface in the place.
Jos looked from one white head of hair to another, then eventually to Alden’s younger, salt-and-pepper gray. He was the only one wearing a sympathetic expression. Jim was already tuned out and the others knew they’d get their way because that was how their world worked. People gave them what they wanted, or they didn’t give anyone anything at all, because they were shipped out. And Jos had just given herself up on a silver platter. She’d said that her job was everything. She’d obviously do anything to keep it.
She gave a tight nod and stood up, ducking her head as she gathered up the contract to read. She had no doubt that she had less than a year left, maybe not even that much time, if she didn’t convince this rich girl to come be her replacement. It wouldn’t be above anyone to fire her and pay out the remaining time on her contract.
She somehow found it in herself, digging to the depths of her very being, to raise her head and give everyone the charming smile she’d perfected over the years. “I’ll get it done.”
No one bothered to respond.
Chapter 2
Eden